Statewide Pediatric Disaster Planning: An Assessment of Critical Care Resources

This presentation describes an assessment of the pediatric/neonatal critical care capacity within the state of Illinois, which was conducted by the Illinois EMS for Children (IL EMSC) program to support its statewide efforts in pediatric disaster preparedness. Mass casualty incidents involving large numbers of critically ill or injured children, could rapidly overwhelm tertiary care facilities, and require a surge in treatment capacity which may include strategies such as expansion of serviced beds and system decompression (transfer of lower acuity patients to other hospitals to increase number of available critical care beds). In order to assess the pediatric/neonatal critical care capabilities in Illinois and selected border state hospitals, the IL EMSC program surveyed the state’s Pediatric Intensive Care Units (n=25), and the Perinatal System Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units (n=30) and Level II-E nurseries (n=23). The survey was a structured telephone interview conducted with managers of pediatric and neonatal ICUs between April and June, 2013. Questions were designed to capture capacity information regarding licensed and “ready-for-use” beds, respiratory equipment (ventilators and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure devices), critical care transport, inpatient surgical and non-surgical specialist availability, selected specialized pediatric/neonatal services, and existence of pediatric disaster surge plans. The survey questionnaire was tailored for each facility type (PICU, NICU, Level II-E), and the response rates were 96%, 100% and 96%, respectively. Aggregate data for the critical care capacity measures were prepared to examine statewide and regional disaster preparedness capacity, and provide baseline data that can benefit statewide disaster planning efforts.